Sleep

Today I am very sleepy. I often sleep on my back and have felt my tongue come down. Could it be sleep apnoea?

Not only me, but most Japanese have problems of sleep.

Sleep in Japan is among the shortest in the world, and many scientists are sounding the alarm.

1. Sleep duration in Japan

The average sleep duration in Japan, for 470 minutes is extremely low by international standards.

This is clearly due to cultural factors.

2 Japanese attitudes to sleep

When I was a child, there were a lot of children (It was on the top of population peak) and everyone was studying hard for exams.

Even my mother told me that “4 pass 5 fail”. It meant that if you slept up to four hours, you might be able to pass the entrance exams, but if you studied sloppily and slept more than five hours, you would not be able to go to university.

Even in the working world, there is still a social atmosphere that if you want to be successful, you should work hard while everyone else sleeps at night.

Also, many young people in particular want to cut their sleeping time and enjoying life, and sometimes brag to each other about how little sleep they get.

Because of this culture of accepting less sleep as a good thing for children, the younger generation and the working generation as a whole, Japanese people sleep less.

3. Japanese attitudes are starting to change

Recently, however, the importance of sleep has begun to be recognised and it has been reported that baseball player Shohei Otani is paying attention to his sleep.

In addition, an organisation called the International Institution for Integrative Sleep Medicine has been established at the National University of Tsukuba in Japan, and DR. Yanagisawa Masashi, a professor at the University of Texas, was invited to the head of the organisation to promote sleep research. The Institute strongly drives research of sleep.

He also established SUIMIN Co., Ltd. to promote the importance of easy measurement of sleep status for each citizen of Japan.

4. Conclusion

However, the importance of sleep has not yet reached the general public.

In particular, junior and senior high school students seem to sleep extremely little, partly due to the prevalence of games and social networking services.

When I asked my students in the second year of high school (16-17years old), 2/3 of the class slept 4-5 hours.

My life could have been very different if I had gotten more sleep.